Ducks keep streak going

Oregon stretched its winning streak to eight games with a 4-1 triumph over Gonzaga on Wednesday night at PK Park.

The 10th-ranked Ducks (42-11) used four pitchers, three of them with limited previous appearances this season to limit the Bulldogs (32-18) to four hits as Oregon kept its momentum going into a weekend series against Oregon State for the Pac-12 lead.

Clayton Crum, who had pitched only 6 1/3 innings this season and hadn’t been in a game since his lone previous start on May 1, threw the first five innings before Cole Wiper (2-1) worked two innings and Jared Priestly one. Wiper had appeared in only six previous games and Priestly five.

Jimmie Sherfy then came in to pitch the ninth inning and record his 19th save of the season, matching his UO record set last year.

The Ducks broke it open with a three-run seventh inning, including two runs that came in on J.J. Altobelli’s squeeze bunt with the bases loaded.

Craig Meredith, who tripled to open the inning, tallied the first of those runs and when the Bulldogs threw to first to retire Altobelli, Ryan Hambright rounded third and kept on running and was able to slide around the tag attempt at home to up Oregon’s lead to 3-1. An RBI single from Brett Thomas then completed the scoring.

Bob Clark is a veteran sports reporter who has covered local and national events for more than 30 years.